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Happy Birthday Sonny Rollins

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95 today!

Night At The Village Vanguard with Wilbur Ware and Elvin Jones is an album I play often.

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  3. The Bridge is one of my favourite Rollins albums, the first he released after his years improvising on the Williamsburg Bridge. Jim Hall on guitar rather than the more usual pianist is a nice change.

  4. I still play his music, especially those early albums, Saxophone Colossus etc. His sound is the best

    Fun fact – he’s the only surviving musician from that famous 1958 Art Kane photo of NYC jazz musicians. Found this little YT clip about it hosted by Art Kane’s son

    • Just discovered (from Wikipedia) that he was in a band at school with Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew and Art Taylor. That’s a sign of future intent if ever I saw one.

  5. I really like his records and just the way he plays. I’ve never heard a bad one, he is hip but accessible too. I play the Alfie soundtrack album way more than any other soundtrack.

  6. Thankyou, Tigger and everyone else who has brightened up my evening with these marvelous Sonny Rollins tracks.

    What a long and very distinguished career.

    One thing that baffles me. How did it come about that, Alfie, that most English of films, got a soundtrack written by a very distinguished, Amerícan jazz musician?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_(Sonny_Rollins_album)

    I read on wiki that Sonny played Ronny Scott’s quite a lot in the 60s so he wa probably known.

    Here is the music for the final credits.

    The notes are very interesting.

    On its original release, the movie had an all instrumental soundtrack, by Sonny Rollins. The Oscar nominated song, by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, was added for the American release, and to a U.K. re-release. For the U.K. re-release, the song was sung by Cilla Black over the end credits, which went to number nine on the British charts. For the U.S. release, the song was originally to be sung by Dionne Warwick over the end credits, but was replaced at the last minute by the version sung by Cher. Ironically, Warwick’s version outperformed Cher’s on the Billboard charts. Burt Bacharach produced Cilla’s version, although George Martin insisted his be the only name to be credited. All versions around to day have the altered exit music. This is the original Sonny Rollins Exit score from a German first-release print.

    The theme tune became a live favourite..

    WARNING. This track contains jazz bagpipes.

    And here it is along with some scenes from the film…

    • There was quite a strong connection between kitchen sink drama and jazz music. I think A Taste of Honey (the play) originally had a live jazz band on stage, improvised soundtrack I believe. (Might be mixed up here).

      Anyway, there were many similar things in theatre- my Dad was one of the jazz players on stage in a Birmingham play called Catback. I have the script – I can see why nobody has heard of it since! But this ethos moved from theatre to film. Jazz = gritty reality.

    • Also a note about the original end credits music- you can hear a valve got stuck on Sonny’s sax, and once you notice it you can’t unhear it. It’s possible that this also influenced the replacement of the end titles music. But it’s a shame, because the original music makes the story seem less happy/uplifting, and the booming vocals of the replacement makes Alfie’s story seem like a victory, which it isn’t…

      • That is a very good question @Alias–

        Herbie Hancock and also the Yardbirds.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blow-Up_(soundtrack)

        It looks like Antonioni had his finger on the pulse.

        This wiki quote is intereSting…

        The liner notes to a 2000s CD release indicate that Hancock first recorded the score in London with British musicians, but rejected the results and re-recorded the music in New York.[5] According to a Library of Congress listing, additional uncredited musicians at the New York sessions included Don Rendell on tenor sax and Gordon Beck on organ.[6] London sessions are said to have involved Hancock, Rendell and Beck, along with Ian Carr on trumpet, Pete McGurk on acoustic bass, and Chris Karan on drums.[6] Hancock is also listed as being the arranger and music director.

        His next film used even more rock music.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabriskie_Point_(film)

        The soundtrack to Zabriskie Point includes music from Pink Floyd, The Youngbloods, Kaleidoscope, Jerry Garcia, Patti Page, Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, and John Fahey. Roy Orbison wrote and sang the theme song, over the credits, called “So Young (Love Theme from Zabriskie Point)”.

      • It’s probably the same thing: jazz = gritty reality (as far as directors were concerned.)

        Herbie did a few other less obvious soundtracks, like Fat Albert Rotunda from 1969, which is where he started to stretch out into jazz funk. It’s a great and overlooked record. Brilliant for sampling, too..!

              • There are lots of fantastic jazz soundtracks:

                Duke Ellington – Anatomy Of A Murder, Elmer Bernstein -The Man With The Golden Arm, Miles Davis – Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud, Michel Legrand – The Thomas Crown Affair, Herbie Hancock et al – Round Midnight, Quincy Jones – The Pawnbroker, Dizzy Gillespie – The Cool World (his best work of the sixties), Krzysztof Komeda – Knife In The Water (his best work full stop), The Modern Jazz Quartet – Odds Against Tomorrow.

                I love Lester Bowie with the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – Les Stances A Sophie. Fantastic soundtrack. Special mention for the man who wrote Mission Impossible, Lalo Schifrin – Bullitt.

                My absolute favourite is Elmer Bernstein and The Chico Hamilton Quintet: Sweet Smell Of Success. The contrast between the jazz and the orchestra is brilliant.

  7. i was browsing IMDB to find out whether Sonny had dome any other and i stumbled across this.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36257829/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_2_cdt_t_5

    A 30 minute show recorded here in Stockholm at the NALEN JAZZ CLUB..

    To my delight, i found it on YT. Well worth a look.

    Sonny is very modest and charming.

    Nalen is still going strong but there’s not so much jazz.

    I’ve recently seen fine shows there by Richard Hawley and then Bonnie Light Horseman with @Locust and @DuCo01

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